National Archives corrects label on box; birthers call it a crime

Jerome Corsi looked at INS arrival records for Hawaii for 1961, around the time President Obama was born. He reported that records were missing, or at least that’s how his reporting was described. More accurately, as I understand it, the images on the microfilm were unreadable towards the end of the reel. Someone, I presume Corsi, took a picture of the microfilm box that was labeled: “INS, HONOLULU, July 28, 1961 – August 8, 1961.”1

Now, the box label is changed, or so says Mr. Sibley in an emergency motion in his lawsuit, and in a color report at ObamaReleaseYourRecords. The new label says “July 28, 1961 – August 1, 1961.” ORYR makes a federal case out of this:

Thus, indisputably the box has been tampered with – a criminal offense – to hide the fact that the microfilm for the August 2 through August 7, 1961 arrivals is now missing.

I don’t see what the big deal is. If the records aren’t on the film, it makes perfect sense to change the box label to accurately reflect what’s in it. How is that in any way a crime? And if there really is no other box starting with August 2, then it remains obvious that such records are “missing.”

The other weird thing is that the normal way to get to Hawaii from Kenya in 1961 was to come via New York, and that’s where INS travel records ought to be. The final leg to Hawaii would have been a domestic flight with no INS paperwork at all. Besides, we already know from 1961-62 INS statistical reports that no US citizen made such a flight from Kenya.

1I never have understood why birthers, who doubt just about everything about Obama’s birth certificate, doggedly insist on the actual August 4 date of birth, even on the fake Kenyan certificates.

21 Responses to National Archives corrects label on box; birthers call it a crime

Birthers have never questioned the birth date because all of their “theories” are based on (supposed) contradictions. The date of birth is one of the few facts where nobody has given birthers an opening to attack the fact by misstating the date.

All the birthers would need was one old newspaper article, or birthday card, or half-filled out library card application with a different date on it, and they’d be running around demanding the President “explain the contradiction” and “respond to the controversy.”

I see birthers on right wing websites like birtherreport and godfather are threatening the president at an as of yet unseen rate.

I got chastised and demonized for threatening Arpaio once. (A so-called sheriff who was lying about the president , stiring up VERY dangerous political dissent for political gain. He could have incited one of his dangerous followers to act out on their violent fantasy..> Who was more dangerous? ME?

Here I am a year later still struggling with the hate I STILL feel for these pathetic people. I don’t threaten anyone any more but please explain to me, how were my words “dangerous” ..More dangerous than what Arpaio did/was doing/is doing?

I had a lot going on at the time , very serious undiagnosed medical problem and was self medicating with alcohol at the time … I was never a danger to anyone, I just took words out on people online. It was like an “Acting” job … It wasn’t “real” and in person to me.

do I regret what happened? Sort of … I sort of don’t give a fuck though. Should I ? I regret my family having to worry about me. I regret being lied about in the media and by Arpaio himself.

I could tell my probation officer was a conservative and had it out for me — just talked to him a couple times and got the feeling he thought I should be in jail. That’s why I got the hell out of TN. I have a misdemeanor harassment charge and probation that I just said “F IT” and left the state. I’m 3000 miles away from there now. Lawyer says TN won’t try to extradite me on such a small charge ;

Finally found out what was wrong with me (achalasia — felt like I had cancer) Spent over a month in the hospital/had surgery…. Anyway I just wanted to throw my two cents out there. I suppose I’m feeling the urge to give some of these people a piece of my mind again. I suppose I should bite my lip and keep things to myself…It’s hard not to want to bash peoples face in when you read these racist dipshits threatening to shoot Obama voters and the president himself.

By the way, the whole “satan told me to do it” .. Was just a troll job. These people want to demonize anyone who doesn’t agree with them. I simply became the demon they thought I was. Being a troll for attention is addicting when you have gullible people making your posts go viral . My mistake was losing site of reality a bit and getting a bit lost “in character” … I started getting death threats a little over a year ago so I sunk to their level and threatened them. Am I a bad person. Nah? Just a little bit of a trouble maker.

Doesn’t CDR’s narrative include Obama having been born in Kenya some weeks before August 4th? That’s the only way he can get mother and child back to Hawaii in time to match her harder-to-refute arrival in Washington state.

I can certainly identify with the bile that rises at some of the things birthers say. For me it is valuable to realize that in the final analysis, the birthers accomplish nothing. What they say, no matter hateful, doesn’t matter.

Did Arpaio take Obama to court? No. Did the birthers convince the public not to re-elect Obama? No. Will the birthers be anything but a footnote in history? No.

Whenever you see a particularly vile, threatening, disrespectful birther comment, just be thankful that you’re not like that. Being a birther must be a terrible burden.

The other helpful thing is to cultivate an appreciation for our institutions. A birther may threaten the President, but the Secret Service keeps tabs on these things. If they pose a real threat, we have laws to deal with them. Our courts work 100% at tossing out nuisance birther lawsuits. The mainstream media does a good job fact-checking birther conspiracy theories and they never get treated with anything but derision. That is, there’s nothing we have to do individually. We can sit on our hands and the birthers still lose.

Adam Cox: Anyway I just wanted to throw my two cents out there. I suppose I’m feeling the urge to give some of these people a piece of my mind again. I suppose I should bite my lip and keep things to myself…It’s hard not to want to bash peoples face in when you read these racist dipshits threatening to shoot Obama voters and the president himself.

“I never have understood why birthers, who doubt just about everything about Obama’s birth certificate, doggedly insist on the actual August 4 date of birth, even on the fake Kenyan certificates.”

Every lie needs a kernal of truth, a starting point to vector from. If this most basic fact were yanked, the whole birfer ball of wax would be totally untethered and unhinged (as opposed to 99.9%). Accepting the date gives grounds for a whole host of allegations … BC numbering, the subject of this article (‘missing’ INS records), newspaper announcements … there wouldn’t even be much point to pestering the surviving persons present and involve in the birth and registration.

They insist on the date because Obama insists on the date, and birfers are insisting his story is false. Therefore they must accept the date, as a starting point for saying, “nuh-uh”.

Saying “Obama wasn’t born on that date” would be a key part of what the birfers never provide (to my knowledge)… much less attempt to prove … an alternate narrative. Like, Obama was really born on [date] in [place] to [parents].” The closest they come is alleging he was born elsewhere, smuggled to Hawaii, and fraudulently registered there. Amorphous, vacuous, pointless.

You make good points Doc. I broke my silence today after starting to troll again a bit this week… I’ve been reading blogs for the entire year and haven’t participated til this point– It gets hard to resist temptation to get involved 😛 …… I suppose it would be best that I just hold my tongue and not say anything. It gets hard not to be abusive to pricks like this! (It’s not like I have a history of playing nice with these people)

You’re right in that participation doesn’t change anything for the better.

“just be thankful that you’re not like that. ”

I wish I wasn’t..mostly I’m not–but obviously I can be. …. I made it more personal than it should be — I have been very wronged by right-wing christian type in the past in my life. I suppose over the years that turned into hate and extreme political position. Honestly, the main reason I wrote on here today is hopes that I would reel myself in from wanting to feed into the negativity. No matter how much I want to let it go, I still feel such hate and disdain for these people. It doesn’t help that I’m addicted to paying attention to what goes on in their world (WND, ETC) — It’s like someone who gets angry at the news but HAS to always pay attention to whats going on regardless. I suppose I need a news fast 😛

Anyway I appreciate your blog and the element of balance and wisdom you bring to the subject. I wish I could learn to take on such a balanced perspective as my own.

Corsi made a big deal out of the fact that the August 4th, 1961 was missing or unreadable. So much of a big deal that Brenda Beasley Kepley, chief of NARA’s Archives 1 Processing Section wrote a letter to him acknowledging the missing flight information. So why does that surprise Sibley that the NARA would correct the box label when they found out it was incorrect?

“The other helpful thing is to cultivate an appreciation for our institutions.”

Well, That was part of my problem from before. I got so used to seeing outright threats (terroristic threats even) go un noticed and unresolved that it became like “the wild west,” so to speak. I became comfortable mimicking their threats …I was intoxicated much of the time; Angry , and developed a lack of faith in the legal institutions for ignoring so many threats. In my drunken state, I don’t recall much detail of hateful threats that may have come from me …I remember thinking at the back of my drunken head that “if the law ever come for me, they’ll have to pay attention to all the threats coming from THEM on that blog toward the president, which I thought was worse” … I never calculated being singled out! For Rush Limbaugh to go on air talking about how evil the left is, using me as an example, when all the terroristic threats emanating from birther report from conservatives! … For one it shows how very little research Rush does and how dishonest he is ……

So yeah, it all took me a bit by surprise — even if I had it coming (which I probably did) … It probably saved my life leaving TN tho — If I hadn’t come out here and found good doctors, I probably would have gone on diagnosed. Achalasia is rare disease that causes esophogus to slowly die over the years. It’s very painful and having something so severe for several years, getting worse, kinda messed me up … I honestly figured I was slowly dying before I found out what was wrong. Early 2012 when the threats took place, was a very dark time for me.

Well, your posting on this forum is a much, much healthier outlet for you to deal with the RWNJ of the world than wasting your time trolling their sewer dens. Places like this and Patrick’s excellent badfiction blog site do a good job of delving into and reporting on the sickos out there, so the rest of us don’t have to actually go there as well. Further, you will get not only better discourse and find thoughtful, compassionate responses here, but also better humor.

With what you’ve said about your past struggles, I really think it is for your own best mental and emotional health to try to stay away from being sucked into trolling their dens of diseased denialism. It really will serve you no good purpose going there, as they are all a bunch of circular-referencing cult sites…and are mostly beyond reach of reason. Let others who are less inclined to be pulled into their darkness visit and come out and report on it here, for you to see and react in our comments sections.

Fortunately, most of the RWNJ and Birtheristani out there are nothing but a bunch of bitter and whiney keyboard commandoes. They are mostly just sad and disgusting little jokes and of no real threat in the physical world. Yes, there are the truly unhinged among them, which we do worry about…but rest assured, those sites are well known to those that keep an eye on such things…and the proper authorities will get involved whenever they actually move to cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

My sympathies to you on what you’ve gone through, especially with your Achalasia. I’m glad that circumstances led to a successful diagnosis and I wish you the best of luck with whatever medical treatments can help.

Building new habits and perspectives can take time. If this site is valuable and healthy for you, your continued open participation and interaction here might be just what you need to develop and strengthen a balanced perspective within yourself. I wish you the best of luck and appreciate your candor and comments here. Obviously, none of us condone making actual threats, so I’m glad to see that you’ve learned from making that terrible mistake and hope that we can offer a better alternative, so that you don’t ever find yourself going down that dark path again…

Adam Cox: Anyway I appreciate your blog and the element of balance and wisdom you bring to the subject. I wish I could learn to take on such a balanced perspective as my own.

Regarding the Customs Records that Corsi looked at. He did in fact look at both Hawaii and New York.

1) Only the Hawaii records were missing the roughly one week of information. The New York records were apparently intact.

2) The Archivists explained that it appears to be the result of a jam of the paper feed mechanism when they were making the original microfilm in 1961. The original film is missing the same records.

3) Corsi acknowledged that the film appears to show cards bunched up and obscuring each other at the end of the relevant reel. Inexplicably however, he still rejects the National Archive’s explanation. In the most recent Zullo affidavit he lies and claims the Archivists offered no explanation at all.

4) Corsi’s silence regarding the New York records indicates that he did not find the Obamas in them… so we know that they did not arrive in New York EITHER by boat or by air.

Michael Bauser: Birthers have never questioned the birth date because all of their “theories” are based on (supposed) contradictions. The date of birth is one of the few facts where nobody has given birthers an opening to attack the fact by misstating the date.All the birthers would need was one old newspaper article, or birthday card, or half-filled out library card application with a different date on it, and they’d be running around demanding the President “explain the contradiction” and “respond to the controversy.”

That’s a valid point Michael but you may have forgotten that one opening to attack (of sorts, and only in their pathetic birther minds) was actually created for them when earlier this year Obama mis-spoke and accidentally said his birthday was coming up in a far shorter time scale than it actually was when he said it.

As I recall it was only jumped upon in general terms by a few birthers but it didn’t pass wholly uncommented upon and some related speculation arose. It was no big deal but it happened.

Dr. Conspiracy: Whenever you see a particularly vile, threatening, disrespectful birther comment, just be thankful that you’re not like that. Being a birther must be a terrible burden.

I pray for them. I hope they get out of whatever mental or emotional trap they’re stuck in, I hope they get the help they need. I’ve heard so many of them say that their families and friends have abandoned them, or that they’ve abandoned their families for not believing in their “cause”.

To be without the people who love them because they choose to put politics ahead of family and friends is a tragedy.

So, I can’t hate them. I feel pity and hope they can fix themselves or get help fixing themselves before it’s too late.

Michael Bauser: All the birthers would need was one old newspaper article, or birthday card, or half-filled out library card application with a different date on it, and they’d be running around demanding the President “explain the contradiction” and “respond to the controversy.”

Even the birthers weren’t so stupid as to do that when their SSN “research” also turned up 4/8/61 in addition to 8/4/61 (and “1890”).
However there was a sub-movement among them which claimed Obama was at least ten years older than his records say, based on estimations about “how old he looks”.
(Actually, I know women younger than my girlfriend who look older than her mother.)

But I never understood why “the smoking gun is that he was born in Hawaii a few years earlier, making him a non-NBC because Hawaii wasn’t yet a state back then” theory never gained any ground. It is the conspiracy theory favoured most by Occam’s Razor.

Someone left the following directed to me at ORYR on the article referenced above. I repeat it as an example of the blind application of bias by birthers. Nowhere does this person posting as “Natural-born citizen” mention any specific complaint or even exhibit that he had ever read an article on this site.

Knowing you bow before Obama and pray nightly to him precludes you from being non-bias. Every story you have is in favor of Barry. Not one thing Barry is accused of and proven, do you agree with. It’s almost as if you are being paid to spew.

You claim to know so much… problem is, none of what you preach to the drones is correct.

No specifics because there are simply so many… Knowing that if Barry were to descend before you and admit he was the foreigner that he is… you would call him a liar too.

YOUR AGENDA PRECLUDES YOU FROM BEING ABLE TO RECOGNIZE OR DISSEMINATE THE TRUTH. It is simply against what you want to believe and that the Conservatives are evil, Liberals are gods. Story after story after story…’those conservatives are wrong’ That is why you are simply another Jim Jones. Your followers are the low information voters formally called MORONS. You may have them fooled but anyone with an education can see you motives.

Don’t you have somewhere else to be where they believe the shit you shovel?

Of course Tribe and Olson in their opinion on McCain specifically indicated their belief that Obama would be a natural born citizen if he had been before statehood in a US Territory.

The Magic M: But I never understood why “the smoking gun is that he was born in Hawaii a few years earlier, making him a non-NBC because Hawaii wasn’t yet a state back then” theory never gained any ground. It is the conspiracy theory favoured most by Occam’s Razor.

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